Trump orders ban on federal funds for gain-of-function research seen as dangerous, Fox News reports

 


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday that bans federal funding for gain-of-function research seen as dangerous, Fox News reported, citing a White House statement.

The order bans federal funding towards such research in China, Iran and other countries and aims to improve the safety and security of biological research, Fox News reported.

The reported quoted the White House as saying the order "will drastically reduce the potential for lab-related incidents involving gain-of-function research, like that conducted on bat coronaviruses in China by the EcoHealth Alliance and Wuhan Institute of Virology."



(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington, Editing by Franklin Paul)